Over 5,000 color postcards, prints, and print proofs made by the Detroit Publishing Company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Also photographs by William Henry Jackson, who was a partner in the business.

The Detroit Publishing Company was originally founded as the Detroit Photographic Company in the late 1890s by William A. Livingstone Jr. and Edwin H. Husher in Detroit, Michigan. The firm became the Detroit Publishing Company in 1905 and was renowned for the brilliant color, technical precision, and diverse subject range of their postcards. They had obtained the exclusive rights to the Swiss "Photochrom" process, a technology that added color to black-and-white photographs using lithography, which preceded the invention of color photography. The process was a carefully guarded secret that the company employed to great success, mass-producing postcards and prints of a wide variety of subjects. In 1897, photographer William Henry Jackson joined the firm, adding his thousands of negatives (photographs) to the firm's inventory. He was also responsible for acquiring images by several other professional photographers. As newer printing methods eventually led to more competition and fewer sales, the company was dissolved in 1932.

21.58 Linear Feet (14 boxes, 3 oversize folders)

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